Joint for drier felt of paper machines



Jan. 8, 1935. M. J. ARGY 1,986,785

JOINT FOR DRIER FELT 0F, PAPER MACHINES Filed Sept. 11, 1930 2o) 1,4. 22)'F 1591- 14] 22) 20 J1 C 16 -1 L? L jx i i T@ l I N VEN TOR.

Michael JAr' y @Mg/ A T TORNEY Patented Jan. s, 1935 PATENT OFFICE v l 1.986.785, :om ron. Damn FELT 'or PAPER moms menu: J. am. Num. raus, N. Y., .signor :o Argy Pre-Heating Corporation, a corporation of New York Application september 11, 1939, semi No. 481,329

' c claim.A (ci. 24-205) monly known as drierfelts, are constructed of a very heavy canvas and recently a felt has been used which is composed of interwoven layers of asbestos and cotton fabric. In order to make it possible to apply'one of such wide belts or drier felts to the machine, it is necessary that the belt material be cut to the proper length and thread- LA ed around the rolls and a series of guide pulleys. The ends are then brought together and secured by .a suitable means ordinarily known as the seam. It is with this seam construction or rather the elimination of the usual seam that my invention is especially concerned. y

Prior to my invention the most satisfactory and commonly used wdrier felt seam has been `made by bringing the ends of the felt Itogether and overlapping or doublingover the .ends and i sewing them with a large hand needle or hand sewing machine after the felt is placed on the machine. A cover strip is then applied over the seam and sewedto the felt and it will be apparent that a thick bulge will result in the belt sev.-

- -"5 eral inches Wide.` It has been dimcult to Obtain a verysmooth job with these hand sewed constructions and the bulge is objectionable .because it will vleave a mark on the paper. In addition, various other difficulties are present in the type 36l of seam commonlyused. 'Ihe several layers of heavy'material at the seam become wet in use which .often wetsthe paper near the nnishing end of the machine crausing` it to be weakened which results in frequent breaks at the calender 40"'- stacks. When this thick seam once gets wet it is .almost impossible todry `it out andsuch wet condition prevailing kfor a few weeks will soon cause the seam to decay and a failureoccurs. 'A break inthe seam will necessitate shutting 4s down themachmemd repairing the seam 1f possible, and the ends of the felt are soon weakcned requiring renewal of the entire felt. It

:has been necessary heretofore to renew these felts at intervals of from four to. eight weeks.

i' In an attempt to avoid the objectionable'fea- Y tures of .the` drier felt seams,-.an endless belt' has been triedbut 'the difficultyI with an endless belt* is that the large heavyrolls Xmustbe removed from the machine in order to applythe felt, and 5?? since the felts have a relativelyshort life, it will be seen that it is necessary to shut down the entire machine for a considerable time every few weeks to renew the felts.

Other methods have been tried to make ai seam that would not be buncby, such as involving the 5 use of copper rivets, clipper fasteners or special cements.

It is an object of my invention to provide an improved drier felt joint construction in which au of the disadvantages ofy the old drier felt seam 1o are eliminated.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved felt joint construction in which the ends of the felts are held together by substan` Itially continuous fastening means which can be 15 quickly closed in applying a new felt to the machine.

. Another object is to provide an improved drier felt joint having f stening means for the ends of the drier felts w ch will provide for ventiia- 20 tion allowing steam to escape from the heated side of the felts through the fastening device.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved drier felt joint which can be quickly applied and in which the ends are held together 25 lby fastening means so proportioned and arranged as to avoid contact with the paper and thus eliminating breaking or marring the paper as by bulging felt seams.l

Other objects and advantages o f the invention 3o will occur to those skilled in the art upon read ing the following specification in conjunctionl with the accompanying drawing, in which a pref ferred form and two slight modifications thereof are shown for purposes of illustration. In the 35 drawing: Fig. 1 is aside elevation of a portiomof a paper making machine shown more or less diagrammatically.

Fig. 2 is a detail view showing the manner in 4o which the ends of the felt are attached together after being placed on the paper making machine. .Fig. 3 is a cross-section through a portion of one of the rolls and drier felts illustrating my invention. Y 45 Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of the felt showing my improved connecting means in conjunction therewith.

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view through the ends of the felt and fastening means.

50, FigisaviewsimilartoFlgAshowingamodiflcation. Fig. 'I is a cross-section similar to/Fig. 5 showing another modification.

Fig. ilv is a section of belt showing insert which is put in a new belt but taken out after it is stretched by wear and two ends of belt fastened.

In carrying out `my invention a commonly known form of slide fastener is employed and has proven particularly satisfactory in accomplishing the purposes of my invention.

A paper making machine as illustrated in Fig. 1 with which two drier felts constructed accord- 'ing to my invention are used, comprises a framework of a suitable form such as indicated in .broken lines at 11 which carries upper and lower series of bearings 12 and 13 respectively, and supports the steam heated rolls 14 of the upper series and 15 of the lower series and carrying rolls 16 of the upper series and 17 of the lower series, placed intermediate of the heated rolls. The strip of paper the thickness of which is here shown greatly exaggerated, may be guided to the large rolls in any suitable way such as by a small or baby drier or carrying roll 18 and is fed over and under the heated drier rolls moving in a tortuous path as illustrated from the right hand' end of the machine to the left hand end, where the paper is taken away from the rolls. Any number of these rolls may be arranged in a series as desired and the width transversely of the machine, that is, the length of the rolls may be also varied toconform to the width of the entire machine, which usually is between one hundredand two hundred inches, more or less. The strip of paper. 19 is carried or directed alternately to the upper and lower series of drier rolls by the upper and lower drier felts, the upper and lower felts functioning independently of each other.I The upper felt is designated 20 and the lower felt is designated 21. These felts pass through the series of Aheated drier rolls and carrying rolls and then pass back over and under the machine, being lguided on their return by suitable idler rolls or pulleys designated as 22.

Referring to Fig. 3 each of the heated drier rolls or cylinders 14 and 15 has a hollow interior 23 to which steam under pressure is supplied by means of a suitable connection through one of the bearings. It will be observed that the strip of paper is between the drier felts 20 and 21, and the drier .rolls at all timesA when passing over and under the heated drier rolls. The felts thus hold the sheetl of paper in contact with the heated rolls over a considerable areawhich heats up the paper and drys it. The wide felts act as supports for the thin sheet of paper throughout its passage through the driers.

For the purpose of securing the juxtaposed ends 24 and 25 of each of the felts together, a fastening device 26 is used and it is not believed necessary to describein detail, the construction and operation of such a fastener. For more detailed description, reference may be hadtothe patent to Gideon Sundback No. 1,219,881March 20, 1917. It is sufficient here to say that a fastener of this type comprises a pair of flexible fabric tapes 27 v and 28 having cooperating series of fastener elements 29 attachedv to and projecting from their adjacent edges, such fastener elements being adapted to be brought together and progressively` shown in Fig. 5 where the fastener elements 29 -are mounted on the single ply stringers 27 andV '28, sacnstringers being mounted on what wm be called the outside surface of the lfelts with the fastener elements located just between the edges of the felt ends 24 and 25. It will be noted that ,the thickness of the drier felts is considerable and therefore, when the fastener is mounted in this manner,` the metal elements 29 do not pro-` ject below the inner surface and thus, never come in contact with the,\paper although there will be no objection if these-elements contact with the. intermediate rolls as they probably will do. However, after the felts are in use for some time, the metal elements will assume some such position as shown in Fig. 3. With this construction there is no seam or bulge or any projection whatever to leave a mark on the paper as in the previous construction, which my invention replaces. I

In actual use, the fastener stringers with the interlocking fastener elements are attached to the ends of the drier felt preferably by the textile manufacturer who supplies the drier felts. It is ,then an easy matter to apply the felts to the paper machine. 'Ihey are passed over the heated and intermediate rolls and the guide pulleys and l the ends 24 and 25 brought together. The proper ends of fastener elements 29 are then brought together and threaded into the wide end of the slider 30; then the slider is pulled up to the end of the series and the drier felt is now fastened in position. Instead of leaving the slider 30 on the stringers as in the usual slide fastener, it is preferably pulled completely oif the stringers after they are interlocked in order to prevent any undue thickness of metal of bulge to cause a mark on the paper. It is necessary to connect the stringers or the ends of the drier felts together at opposite ends of the series of fastener elements by a suitable semi-permanent connection one form of which may be a leather lacing 33 and 34 located at each end of the series of elements as shown in Fig. 4. 'Ihis holds the fastener elements together at each end and thus prevents their disengagement since they are of such nature that they must be engaged or disengaged progressively beginning at one end. It will be noted that the amount of work required to lace the felts together yat opposite ends is very small compared to the work of sewing the ends of the felts together across a belt as wide as one hundred and fifty inches.

If desired, the lacing at one end may be replaced by a suitable separating end connecting device applied to the stringers 27 and 28. As shown such a device may comprise a socket or eye member 35 attached to the Stringer 27 and a suitableA pin member 36 oxi the Stringer 28. In use the pin member 3.6 .is threaded through the slider and held in the eye of socket 35, and the pin is properly positioned by a stop 37 on the socket member. This form of connecting device is more fully shown and described in a patent to Elliot O. Seaver, No. 1,830,077, granted November 3, 1931.

In the modification shown in Fig,\7, the fastener elements 29 are mounted on two ply stringers 38 and 39, the plies of which may be positioned on opposite sides of the heavy canvas felts in order to equalize the tension and prevent any undue stresses. The metal elements 29 are thus located centrally but are not of such thickness as to contact with the paper.

One important feature of the invention resides in the fact .that when the fastener is closed there remains a large number of small cracksor openings 40 as will be clear from Figs. 2, 4 and .6. By' reason of these cracks or openings, the fastening 'Losetas' device acts as a traveling ventilator allowing considerable steam to escape from between the felt and the heated drier rolls. .This is to be contrasted withfthe old form of,seam which entrapped the moisture causingthe ends of the felts to rot out and shorten its life in addition to .causing considerable trouble due to wetting and weakening the paper at the ends of the driers.

One point to which particular attention Ashould be directed is that all felts stretch more or less and the usual custom has been to put the felt on the ends of the, felt can bebrought together and interlocked The use of the insert, of course,

requires an extra complete fastener 42.

As a result of my invention it will be observed that a new connection for the ends of drier felts has been provided which enables the felts to be put on the machine very quickly thus savinga large amount of the time heretofore required. This saving in time togetherwith the fact that my invention materially increases the life of the felts and practically eliminates all repair jobs on the felt seam, greatly reduces the time of shut-down of the machines and increases the output per machine. I t-will also be noted that by the use of my invention, all dimculty due to marks being left on the paper is eliminated,- thus producing a. smooth and even product. t

While I have in this application shown and described by Way of illustration, one preferred embodiment and some i'modiiications thereof which my invention may assume in practice, it will be understood that the same are merely for purposes of illustration an'd that various otherv forms may occur to those skilled in the art.

What I claim as my invention is:`r 'n 1. In a'drier felt seam construction, a pair of exible fastener stringers secured to the meeting ends of the drier felt, cooperating series of fastener elements on the adjacent edges'of said Stringer,

a slider embracing said elements for opening and closing the fastener said fastener elements adapt-,- ed to be brought together and progressively, engaged by theV movement of said slider along said series, and lacing at each end of said series of elements for holdingthe felt ends together at such points and preventing disengagement of vsaid fastener elements. f

- 2. In a drier fel/t seam construction, apair of flexible fastener stringer's secured to the meet- 1 ing ends of thel drier felt, cooperating series of fastener elements onthe adjacent edges of said Stringer, a slider embracing said elements for opening and closing' the fastener said fastener elements adapted to be brought together and prov grssively engaged by tire movement of saidslider along said "series, a separable'end connection at one end ofsaid series of elements comprising in'` ter-engageable parts connected to said stringers.- i

and a semi-permanent connection for theends of said stringers at th'e opposite end of `said series. 3. A joint for the ends of drying felts of paper common to the respective parts and slidable thereon to successively cause interlckingjof the multiple parts and to movethe ends of the felt into 'abutting relationship. j 4. A joint for the ends of a drying felt of paper machines, said felt consisting rof inner and outer layers, a; fastener consisting of `a multiplicity ofl separable interlocking parts secured tothe Vopl posedends of the inner layer, a member common to the parts and slidable thereon to successively move the respective parts into intimate inter- `locking engagement and to-move the ends of the inner and outer layers into abutting relationship. 5. A joint Afor the ends of drier felts for paper machines comprising aslide fastener having co- Y operating sections attached to the opposed ends of the felt on each section,a slider slidable'on said sectionsV for successively interlocking the parts and. to move -the ends of the felt into suby stantially abutting relationship, pand other conf necting means for said sections at each end 'of said multiplicity ofinterlocking parts to prevent unintended opening of the same.

6. A joint for the ends of drier felts for paper v machines comprising a slide fastener consisting 'of a multiplicity of interlocking parts secured.

MICHAEL J. ARGY.' 

